FRANKFURT, GERMANY.-The Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt presents In Concert, a musical project consisting exclusively of visual artists. In Concert presents the musical side of the British Turner Prize–winner Martin Creed, the Leipzig School star Martin Eder, the New York newcomer Janine Gordon aka Jah-Jah, the Canadian artist Rodney Graham, and the American conceptual artist Stephen Prina. Schirn not only picks up on a tradition begun in 2002 with a series of concerts and performances that opened the exhibition Frequenzen [Hz] or events like its concerts given by Carsten Nicolai but also demonstrates that artists are once again more frequently organizing professional bands. In Concert will present a broad musical spectrum, ranging from the lyrics of the American artist Stephen Prina with guitar accompaniment by way of the strident Dadaist play of the Englishman Martin Creed all the way to the polished hip-hop and rap of American Janine Gordon.

In Concert begins on September 26, with the British artist Martin Creed (b.1968), whose minimalist objects and installations frequently incorporate music as an integral element. In 1994, the future Turner Prize winner (2001) founded the band Owada with Keiko Owada (bass) and Karen Hutt (percussion), and in 1997 the released the album nothing. In addition to numerous performances with Owada, since 1999 Creed has also developed solo projects as guitarist and singer in the context of his exhibitions. Creed’s music is a catchy mix of pop and Dada; sometimes his texts merely cite the chords of the music being played or count off the time remaining until the song ends. With his numbers reduced to elementary structures Creed systematically undercuts pop cultural expectations.

On September 28 one of the best-known painters of the Leipzig School, Berlin-based Martin Eder (b. 1968), can be seen and heard as the singer of the band Richard Ruin. The kitschy-bleak moods, between idyll and horror, that characterize Eder’s paintings of dogs, cats, and naked women are also found in his ballads, which recall the Bad Seeds of the 1980s. In small Berlin nightclubs the band, which was formed in 2003, has demonstrated its qualities live. Its first album will soon appear, with songs like “In a Song of No Sorrow” and “Speak a Little Spell.”

Janine Gordon is the youngest artist in this circle. She will give a solo concert on September 29. The New Yorker, whose photographs were shown at the Whitney Biennial in 2003 and at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris in 2004, performs under the pseudonym Jah-Jah. She has already made a name for herself on the American rap and hip-hop scene, which she has entered just as resolutely as she did the punk rock scene whose concerts she photographs so impressively, capturing moments filled with intensity and ecstatic movement. Janine Gordon aka Jah-Jah will soon release her first album.

On September 30 Vancouver-born artist Rodney Graham (b. 1949) will be the Schirn’s guest. For more than twenty years Graham has been active in a variety of artistic media, including prints, photographs, music, film, and video, in which he has created dense complexes of works on historical and cultural contexts. His musical oeuvre revolves around classical music and pop as well as extreme sounds. Hs career spans from his early rock years together with Jeff Wall by way of a series of pop CDs on to a composition on Wagner’s Parzifal. This year will see the release of a new CD by the Rodney Graham Band. In his Schirn concert Rodney Graham will appear as singer and guitarist.

On October 1 Stephen Prina will give a solo concert. Born in Illinois in 1954 and now living in Los Angeles, the artist’s projects relate to works of visual art, music, literature, film, and philosophy and he reflects on their social, historical, or media context. Prina’s musical compositions feature complex structures. They sometimes relate to spontaneous and improvised Fluxus concerts and sometimes to songs from films by Chantal Ackerman or Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Prina’s musical knowledge are based in theory but also worked out in practice. With his CD Push Comes to Love the composer and musician, who participated in documenta IX and teaches at Harvard University. At the Schirn Stephen Prina will present new compositions and accompany his own singing with piano and acoustic guitar.